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Why only 60 seconds for the looper?


musiclover7
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Thank you, I appreciate that - and the reason I've continued this thread is that I've only just come across it (actually whilst doing a Google search for how to implement a Ditto stereo looper in to the FX loops, as that's what I've at last decided I have to do) Perhaps the fact that I've decided to comment on a thread from 2016 actually in itself makes a statement - that the the original point that started this topic is no less valid now, and in fact is possible more valid as people's expectations evolve? Again, let's see when Helix 2 comes out (which can't be that far off?) If competing products are all including longer loopers, then to some degree that 'forces' Line 6 to at least consider that doesn't it?

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Thank you, I appreciate that - and the reason I've continued this thread is that I've only just come across it (actually whilst doing a Google search for how to implement a Ditto stereo looper in to the FX loops, as that's what I've at last decided I have to do) Perhaps the fact that I've decided to comment on a thread from 2016 actually in itself makes a statement - that the the original point that started this topic is no less valid now, and in fact is possible more valid as people's expectations evolve? Again, let's see when Helix 2 comes out (which can't be that far off?) If competing products are all including longer loopers, then to some degree that 'forces' Line 6 to at least consider that doesn't it?

Good choice - a stereo Ditto looper in the FX loop should do an great job of doing just what you need. You can have your full backing track in there. If the Ditto is good enough for guys like Steve Wilson and Guthrie Govan you can’t go wrong. Plus you won’t need a truck if you ever want to transport that device and a couple of extra cables.

 

Have fun going loopy during the long wait for Helix 2 ðŸ˜

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The max time of a recorded loop is not, imho, the most important factor in rendering the Helix Looper usable for live performances. The more important factor is the complexity and timing of the tap dancing required in real time to use the footswitches to navigate back and forth between looper mode and performance mode.

 

You can test that out for yourself with the current looper. Try to record a loop for the rhythm guitar, switch to another preset/snapshot to solo over the loop, then return to the original rhythm setting to continue the next verse of the song - all without missing a beat in the tempo or a desirable note in the solo. And if you also happen to be the singer and need to manage the vocals as well ..... good luck.

 

Here's a post I made some time ago after briefly thinking I might be able to manage it.....

http://line6.com/support/topic/17997-using-helix-looper-live/

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Silverhead, actually that's a really good point, and something that also affects my experience of the looper as it is on the Helix. Datacommando, unfortunately I may have to return the Ditto, has a weird glitch where the volume of the already recorded loop drops completely when you play / record something else over it. Now THAT is making me go loopy!

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I didn't - I bought a unit with a huge number of internal effects of a very high quality. The FX loops were in no way a part of the decision making process for me...

Yes, you did. You bought a unit with 4 effects loops, a 60 second looper and a ton of great effects and modeled amps. That's exactly what you bought. 

 

I really have to laugh when people get mad because the piece of gear they bought doesn't have every single feature they wanted set up the way they wanted it. No company is going to make a unit that is all things to all people. It's literally impossible. We all have different wants and needs. And it doesn't matter if we are playing in front of 20,000 people or 20. If the Helix doesn't work for you, find something that does.

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The max time of a recorded loop is not, imho, the most important factor in rendering the Helix Looper usable for live performances. The more important factor is the complexity and timing of the tap dancing required in real time to use the footswitches to navigate back and forth between looper mode and performance mode.

 

So true!! Using Helix to manage looping plus all of your presets and effects during performance can make for some messy tap dancing.  If you can try a looper before you buy, you should. Some folks do performance looping using 2 or 3 integrated loops, some just need a simple single loop. But the function and layout of buttons, smoothness of operation, audio quality and loop seaming makes all the difference. I tried several loopers before settling on the Boomerang III.

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Silverhead, actually that's a really good point, and something that also affects my experience of the looper as it is on the Helix. Datacommando, unfortunately I may have to return the Ditto, has a weird glitch where the volume of the already recorded loop drops completely when you play / record something else over it. Now THAT is making me go loopy!

Hey, littlespaceman, you don’t seem to be having much luck with this thing. I guess that would drive me loopy too. Hope you can get a replacement unit that functions properly and you are back up and running pretty quick.

Good luck with all your looping adventures.

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A small MIDI controller could be used to control the looper without changing the mode switch. But if you're going to do that, you might as well use a separate, more flexible looper in the effects loop or between Helix and your FRFR.

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  • 4 months later...

I agree with the masses. 2 minute looper  would have made it so much better.  I play solo gigs by myself all the time and usually 60 seconds is enough to throw down a 12 bar blues or a couple of sections.  But sometimes I need that extra time… for instance I like to play “Riviera Paradise” by Stevie Ray Vaughan... it is a slow ballad and to lay down the entire structure it is over a minute therefore I now need another machine to play that song.  This would not have prevented me from buying the helix. The benefits I have received from using it are awesome so this is just a little detail... but it is slightly important for gigging musicians in the world.

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If you’re going to be playing longer songs, a looper may not be the right tool. First it takes too long to lay down two or three tracks if the loops are long. This can be annoying to your listeners. Second if you make a mistake and have to undo, you’ve got to wait a while before trying again, making it take even longer to lay down the loops. 

 

I’d use backing tracks for longer, more complex arrangements. We have a couple of local guys here, one that specializes in looping, and another who uses backing tracks. Both are very good an great entertainers. When you focus on them, their vocals and both are good guitar players, you don’t really notice that much difference between the loops and backing tracks.

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Looper complaints?! As many have said (and I agree) the Helix looper wasn't meant to be a performance looper. Get a good, dedicated looper with dedicated functions and buttons and jack it in. Then loop your head off.

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On 6/1/2016 at 4:50 AM, DunedinDragon said:

Personally I didn't buy the Helix to be a jack-of-all-trades.  If I want a sophisticated looper I'll buy one and hook it in.  But since I have no need for one I'm glad I didn't have to pay for one that was built in to the unit that I would never use.

 

I see extra midi button functionality in much the same way, as there are already inputs for two more expression pedals for more flexible midi control inside any patch. And midi through and out if you want external midi control integration. I can hook in an SY300 or dedicated Looper already plus USB midi to a DAW. Those three expression pedals can already be used much like control buttons while playing any patch. And if I want more midi changes I have 8 patch buttons, each one brings up a sound capable of all of the above---again. So there's a lot of flexibility in those options already.

 

Maybe the request for more midi buttons would be more understandable if I grasped why the current in-built midi control flexibility and expandability was considered not sufficient by the proposer? i.e. a request for more midi control buttons should firstly give examples of why what exists can't practically do the job, already. With emphasis on practical.

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Just put this bad boy in one of your loops(or two for stereo and be done). I only use the looper for trying out ideas and not often either. I find it easier just making backing tracks to jam live to instead of the looping because I have seen and heard a few looping nightmares live. 

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10 hours ago, zivdud said:

Just put this bad boy in one of your loops(or two for stereo and be done). I only use the looper for trying out ideas and not often either.

 

Alternatively, use one of them, put its output through the Helix second path to generate a stereo output. You could then use Helix expression pedals to alter the effects (along with your guitar sound on the first effects path).

 

The 60 sec looper can be useful for off-stage sound-checking of eq at gig volume. There's just enough loop time for intro, verse, chorus, to fine-tune Global master eq or else tweak individual patches for things you don't hear up close while playing or at lower volume (having off-stage bluetooth editing would speed that up too).

 

That said, having around 5 mins of stereo recording would be a vast improvement to the practicality of Helix to both learn parts and practice and edit sounds, or for basic song creation. I'm not a fan of doing that on a DAW, the computer becomes too intrusive and de-focuses me and that 'snips' an emotive-creative thread before proper themes or songs form. Not good. But a single 5 minute stereo recording is all it takes to make something worth taking to your band. Generating it on a DAW is too isolating, having it on a Helix means you can immediately play it with a band, and develop music cooperatively, live.

 

60 seconds isn't enough for that.

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... this thread is destined to loop over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over

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On 6/23/2018 at 7:17 PM, WickedBluesman said:

I agree with the masses. 2 minute looper  would have made it so much better.  I play solo gigs by myself all the time and usually 60 seconds is enough to throw down a 12 bar blues or a couple of sections.  But sometimes I need that extra time… for instance I like to play “Riviera Paradise” by Stevie Ray Vaughan... it is a slow ballad and to lay down the entire structure it is over a minute therefore I now need another machine to play that song.  This would not have prevented me from buying the helix. The benefits I have received from using it are awesome so this is just a little detail... but it is slightly important for gigging musicians in the world.

 

Just set the Helix looper to 1/2 Speed. That should give you 120 seconds of loop time.

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  • 7 months later...
On 6/25/2018 at 2:38 AM, soundog said:

The Helix looper wasn't meant to be a performance looper.

 

I'm not sure. If so, why it allows us to overdub, or why there are two different blocks?

 

I don't complaint about looper length, but it's a pity to not be able to synchronise the looper with the preset tempo. We should define a number of bars (say 2 bars) and Helix should stop recording after 8 beats (assuming we're playing in 4/4) and creates a little crossfade to avoid cracks at the end of the loop. A second option is to choose the number of beats instead of bars. That would allow us to sync with ternary rhythms. The Helix already plays in-sync with delays. So I don't understand why it is not implemented yet.

 

Sure it would be super to have a 4-track looper but as people says, it's not the point. However, this sync feature makes more sense, and the funny thing is that it will open the gates for a multitrack looper block (who knows...).

 

Helix users, what do think about that?

 

Maybe a few of you play with external sync gears (like a drum machine) but for this kind of users (as me) it is a really missing feature. The joke is that I bought an MPC Live (Live!) and I can't learn its looper buttons via MIDI nor plug a pedal in it. In both sides I have no luck. Moreover, it restricts the creativity (for the moment, I can't make a mix of electronic and rock music without a computer and Ableton Live. I use it just for its in-sync loop feature).

 

Being that said, I'm still very happy with the Helix. Certainly the best piece of gear I have! And the next update looks very tasty.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Cyril.

 

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10 hours ago, ursomuch2me said:

Love the quality and quantity of effects but...need a guitar tracker for vocal harmonies and at least 2 track looper. Bought this my solo show. Would like to be rid of my TC VL3 and Boss RC300 looper. I know you can do it. Its 2019

Here's why that should not happen.

You are talking about 3 different pieces of gear built into one.

Chances are, if you did that, the people who are the target market for it (very few) are going to buy their favorite of each of those solutions anyway.

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  • 1 year later...

60 Second WTF!

 

Yeah, I'm shocked by this too. I'm a new Helix user and ran into the problem last night. I thought I was doing something wrong. I honestly never bothered to check the max record time before buying the Helix because it's going to be 10 minutes or something for sure...It's a BOODLY Helix right...the Rolls Royce. Nup! My 5 year old Fractal FX-8 does 4 minutes in stereo, surely a new whizz-bang Helix will be more than that. Because of that one thing this unit has lost some of its mojo for me. I loop a lot and 1 minute is just not enough. Please Line6 sort this out.

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On 6/2/2016 at 8:12 PM, Digital_Igloo said:

 

I've read those requests as people not wanting the looper to get in the way. The requests weren't just from IdeaScale either—we heard the same stuff in sit-down interviews, one-on-one discussions, forum posts, etc.

 

Again, I'm all for a hardcore feature-packed looper in Helix. But it'd likely be the rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes, at the expense of everything else people want. We have ideas on how to add looper stuff without falling off the cliff, tho', and specific, detailed feature requests (as opposed to "add the equivalent of a $500 dedicated looper made by a dedicated looper team over two years") are always welcome.

 

I'm hesitant to alter Helix's existing workflow, however. For example, letting people add any switch from any mode to any switch in any other mode would make things more difficult for everyone, including people who avoid loopers like the plague.

 

 

Line 6 could always take a cue from the Headrush guys (even though it is usually the opposite way around) and look into releasing a Helix "looperboard" that would just be a dedicated looper that could be designed to easily integrate with the Helix platform... ;)

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I saw the Kemper Profiler Stage unit for the first time today. Looks amazing, similar price range to the Helix, with some things better and some things worse, I'm sure. And yet... still only 60 seconds of looper time. So, the Helix is in good company!

 

I wouldn't be surprised if we see more looper time on whatever the next iteration of the Helix is.

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  • 2 years later...

Greetings.
I know this is an old conversation, but I want to say my idea anyway, because I use the looper a lot.
Many argue that the maximum loop time is not an important issue. For me it is not true.
I use the looper essentially to play solos on structures that I recorded while the singer sings the song.
For example, in the first chorus the singer sings the song, I play the chords and record the loop. In the second chorus I loop the recording and do a solo. It is typical in jazz oriented.

The average structure of a song has 32 bars. If I imagine the 60bpm time of a ballad, we will have 4 seconds per beat, which in 32 is 128 seconds, more than the maximum allowed.
This means that I cannot use it to improvise on every song, and on many I will be dangerously at risk of sudden stop (this in mono and at half speed ...).

As far as I'm concerned, the increase of a few seconds would be enough to make it usable.
Instead at the moment I am forced to wire another additional pedal, which is what I would NOT want to do, having a machine like Helix available.

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On 7/21/2022 at 9:58 AM, maxmonno said:

I know this is an old conversation, but I want to say my idea anyway, because I use the looper a lot.
Many argue that the maximum loop time is not an important issue. For me it is not true.


Greetings necromancer.

 

Your first post is a complaint?
 

Really?

 

Did you not research what you were buying?

 

Yes, it is an old conversation, and if you actually read through the thread you will see that many have argued that “the maximum loop time is not an important issue”.

 

See the post from “soundog” who explains that the Helix looper was never intended as a performance looper.


Also “cruisinon2” and others have said,  “There will never be a single device that satisfies every possible want or need”.


Furthermore, I commented way back in 2018 - “a stereo Ditto looper in the FX loop should do an great job of doing just what you need. You can have your full backing track in there. If the Ditto is good enough for guys like Steve Wilson and Guthrie Govan you can’t go wrong. Plus you won’t need a truck if you ever want to transport that device and a couple of extra cables.

 

Your issue apparently is - “Instead at the moment I am forced to wire another additional pedal, which is what I would NOT want to do, having a machine like Helix available.”

 

Oh dear, so sad, what a shame. Maybe you should have checked the tech spec first. I guess that is why those nice people at Line 6 provided all those Send/Return sockets on the hardware, so you can extend the functionality by adding a whole bunch of other Looper, Delays and Reverbs that the Helix doesn’t have on board. Seem to work for most users.

 

Caveat Emptor!

 

Hope this helps/makes sense.

 

 

 

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On 7/21/2022 at 4:58 AM, maxmonno said:

Greetings.
I know this is an old conversation, but I want to say my idea anyway, because I use the looper a lot.
Many argue that the maximum loop time is not an important issue. For me it is not true.
I use the looper essentially to play solos on structures that I recorded while the singer sings the song.
For example, in the first chorus the singer sings the song, I play the chords and record the loop. In the second chorus I loop the recording and do a solo. It is typical in jazz oriented.

The average structure of a song has 32 bars. If I imagine the 60bpm time of a ballad, we will have 4 seconds per beat, which in 32 is 128 seconds, more than the maximum allowed.
This means that I cannot use it to improvise on every song, and on many I will be dangerously at risk of sudden stop (this in mono and at half speed ...).

As far as I'm concerned, the increase of a few seconds would be enough to make it usable.
Instead at the moment I am forced to wire another additional pedal, which is what I would NOT want to do, having a machine like Helix available.

Some folks need a dedicated looper like those from Boss. Your situation is a perfect example of that.

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... this 2016 thread is destined to loop over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over

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On 7/24/2022 at 12:01 AM, datacommando said:

No, it is not a complaint.
Helix is a great machine that has changed my professional life in many ways, all positive.
My first post is just a way to balance the arguments on the plate.
As if to say: look that there is not only your opinion, there is also mine, for what little matters.


On the other side I think your sarcasm is something you don't need, because mine is just an observation that explains one need. The fact that my needs are not yours does not give you the right to be so caustic. In any case, don't touch me.

I already use  a very good Electro Harmonix looper. Obviously Helix Floor is not very small, the space to play is not always a lot and having another pedal next to the pedal board to be used continuously with precision while playing is not the best. I have not the Govan's stage, usually!

Just as Helix is full of amplifiers designed for metal, it could perhaps even provide 10 more seconds of loop time. Maybe. Maybe.
And - I repeat - it is only my opinion that does not shift the fact that Helix is a great machine, which I chose - even if you think you know i was in the opposite - after very careful evaluation and great awareness.
Greetings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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